The Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies offers an exceptionally stimulating environment, where interdisciplinary research flourishes across film, television and media topics, including journalism, media history, the creative industries, memory studies and practice-led research. Our research aims for critical engagement with technologies, old and new, and poses theoretical, aesthetic and political questions associated with the rise of digital media.

In addition to the Birkbeck Library, research students have access to the nearby Senate House Library, various libraries of the University of London colleges, the British Library, as well as other specialist collections and institutions in central London, including the British Film Institute library. They may also take advantage of practical film-making opportunities offered through the Derek Jarman Lab.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation. The MPhil thesis is not more than 60,000 words; the PhD thesis is not more than 100,000 words. The thesis requirements for a practice-based project vary according to the nature of the research and can be discussed with the admissions tutors. Both the MPhil and the PhD are assessed by a viva voce examination.

At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

Current research areas in the Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies include: cultural studies, digital media culture and technology, film industries and cinema cultures (British, European and worldwide), gender and sexuality studies, histories of television, journalism studies and investigative reporting, media studies, multimedia design, the music industry, and the visual arts.

Entry requirements

A good degree including film, television, media studies, social sciences or related disciplines in humanities, history and visual studies as a major subject. Depending on your background and research experience, a BA might be sufficient. Generally we recommend that you apply with a good MA degree.

You will also need to submit a specific indication of research interests with your application, and a 2000-word proposal.

International entry requirements

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 7.0, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

Visa requirements

If you are not from the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or Switzerland and you are coming to study in the UK, you may need to apply for a visa.

The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

Courses of more than six months’ duration.

Courses of less than six months’ duration.

Pre-sessional English language courses.

International students who require a Tier 4 visa should apply for our three-year evening study BA/BSc/LLB degrees, as these are classified as full-time study and qualify for student visa status. If you are living in the UK on a Tier 4 visa, you will not be eligible to enrol as a student on Birkbeck’s part-time evening study degrees.

Fees

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their programme. Tuition fees for students continuing on their programme in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy.

Fees and finance

Outstanding MPhil/PhD researchers are encouraged to apply for our competitive scholarships and studentships, which cover fees and maintenance. Read more and apply now.

The research environment of the Department benefits externally from the activities of the Vasari Research Centre, and from its participation in the London University Screen Studies Group, which is an umbrella organisation covering all aspects of screen study across the colleges of the University of London.

You will have the opportunity to get publishing experience through involvement with the School of Arts postgraduate journal, Dandelion. You are also encouraged to develop and run symposia, conferences and reading groups which include other students and staff members. Through the University of London Screen Studies Group, you take part in the biannual postgraduate training workshops.

You are expected to participate in the department's research events, including attending lectures, research skills sessions and other classes/workshops as appropriate. You also benefit from the extensive programme of activities organised by the School of Arts. Read more about our vibrant research culture.

Teaching opportunities

As part of our commitment to professional development, you have the opportunity to gain experience in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. There is also a 10-week lecture series, Teaching in the Arts, which is designed to prepare students for teaching humanities in higher education.

How to apply

You apply directly to Birkbeck for this course, using the online application link.

The research proposal forms the core of your application to undertake an MPhil or PhD, as it is the main way in which we can assess you and your research ideas. Your proposal should be 2000 words in all, not including references. It should include the following sections and the questions you need to consider, in the order indicated:

introduction, including a rationale

literature review

corpus of work, body of data or case studies you intend to research

clear statement of research questions

proposed methods

potential significance

timetable.

While it is difficult to specify with certainty the course of the research, it is helpful to indicate how you see your work developing and the timescales involved. For full-time PhD students, the maximum period for completion under normal circumstances is four years. It is seven years for part-time students.

Once your application is reviewed by the Birkbeck Registry, it is passed on to the postgraduate tutors for film and screen media studies, Dr Dorota Ostrowska and Dr Tim Markham, who will then liaise with the appropriate academic staff to review the merits of the proposal and whether we have the expertise to support the research.

Once those criteria are met, you will be invited in for an interview in person or by telephone, depending on your circumstances.

Finding a supervisor

A critical factor when applying for postgraduate study in film and screen media studies is the correlation between the applicant’s intellectual and research interests and those of one or more potential supervisors within the Department.

Find out more about the research interests of our academic staff:

Dr Mike Allen: history of television; early cinema; digital culture; history of media technologies and multimedia design.

Dr Nobuko Anan: modern and contemporary Japanese theatre/performance and visual arts; nationhood and gender/sexuality in transnational contexts; experimental and popular culture in Japan.

Dr Silke Arnold-de Simine: German literature of the nineteenth century, especially the uncanny and the fantastic; W.G. Sebald; early German film; cultural history of the museum; cultural memory and media; practices of remembrance; remembering the GDR.

Dr Andrew Asibong: 20th- and 21st-century French and francophone fiction; theatre and film; cultural studies; psychoanalysis (especially the British school) and its intersection with the arts; the writer Marie NDiaye; ethics, aesthetics and politics of 'the fantastic'; cultural reconfigurations of kinship and community.

Professor Ian Christie: early film and related media; British cinema history; cinema/TV relations; Russian and Soviet cinema; European film policy and issues in media historiography; film and visual arts.